Blood Bath & Beyond
Michelle Rowen
Obsidian, Aug 7 2012, $7.99
ISBN: 9780451237644

In Toronto, Sarah Dearly was bitten by a vampire and consequently became one. She struggled to cope until she fortunately met six hundred years old Master Vampire Thierry de Bennicoeur. He would say that he is the fortunate one as he was contemplating suicide until they met as she has given him a reason to live. The instructor and the student are engaged.

The Ring, who oversees vampiric activity in to avoid human exposure, hires Thierry as a consultant. He and Sarah travel to Las Vegas to hunt a serial killing vampire. Thierry has had public arguments with Bernard; he threatens to kill him if he fails to turn over items that could harm their species and humans. When Bernard is murdered, Thierry is the only suspect. The Ring Enforcer Markus places Thierry under house arrest while he investigates the homicide. All the evidence affirms Thierry killed Bernard. Sarah begins an inquiry that fails to prove otherwise; so she busts her fiancé out of his jail; leaving both of them as fugitives from the Ring.

This is the first of a revised Immortality Bites urban fantasy series with a much darker suspense than the original chick lit tales.-The heroine is an independent modern day Canadian while her beloved is a Renaissance Era vamp struggling with her feistiness that he cherishes deadly but fearful that will end her undead life rather quickly. This is an engaging paranormal mystery that ensures the Rowen mythology seems real as a fledgling amateur sleuth and her experienced “elderly” partner search for a killer while eluding the Ring.

Harriet Klausner